The Freedom Tower

Complaints about the design and security of the Freedom Tower have resurfaced in the wake of Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s apparent decision to back the project.
The latest rumblings come from Guy Nordenson.
Nordenson worked on the project four years ago with architect David Childs when Childs was the principal architect on the first version of the Ground Zero project. There have been numerous versions since those early years.
Nordenson says the current tower bares no resemblance to the original, a fact anyone who has been watching this project unfold is already aware of but Nordenson says the new design looks like a “gigantic glass paperweight with a toothpick stuck on top”… or he is quoting an unnamed critic of the existing design … but adds this design is going up “without any sense of orientation or any recognition of its place in the skyline. This is a shame, especially considering what the same architects showed they were capable of next door, in the elegant new 7 World Trade Center building.
“But it is understandable: not only were the architects rushed by Mr. (former Gov.) Pataki, but after the ordeal of the first design’s development and rejection, it seems natural that Mr. Childs would reach for a simple geometry the second time around. The result, unfortunately, would be second rate in Chicago, Dubai or Shanghai, and should not be the symbol of New York City, let alone freedom.”